The problem i see is that its still too easy for a new thing to take over if they undertake most of the monetization ideas on the table. right now, twitter has all of the upside (free, easy to use, everybody is already using it) and none of the down side (selling your data, obtrusive ads, targeted marketing, fee's for tweets.) but now you can't go back and add those sorts of things without potentially annoying your customers, and giving someone incentive to try and steal your market share by offering something new.

tlchwi02:The problem i see is that its still too easy for a new thing to take over if they undertake most of the monetization ideas on the table. right now, twitter has all of the upside (free, easy to use, everybody is already using it) and none of the down side (selling your data, obtrusive ads, targeted marketing, fee's for tweets.) but now you can't go back and add those sorts of things without potentially annoying your customers, and giving someone incentive to try and steal your market share by offering something new.

You shouldn't, but you can. Facebook circa 2004 was free and I don't remember any ads, but we all know how that story ends.

FishyFred:Online advertising is cratering and they apparently don't sell a ton of it to begin with.

It is not just online advertising, it is also essentially polling data. I mean I have a facebook account. They know my name, my age my marital status where I live and that I like beer. You don't think there are people out there who would pay for that information for a group of people in a certain given area?

mechgreg:FishyFred: Online advertising is cratering and they apparently don't sell a ton of it to begin with.

It is not just online advertising, it is also essentially polling data. I mean I have a facebook account. They know my name, my age my marital status where I live and that I like beer. You don't think there are people out there who would pay for that information for a group of people in a certain given area?